flahute

One of these days I’ll figure out what it’s going to take to get me to go to bed at a reasonable hour, so I’m not struggling through the next day at work on only 3-4 hours of sleep.

But not tonight.

THE WEAKERTHANS – CIVIL TWILIGHT

My Confusion Corner commuters are cursing the cold away
As December tries to dissemble the length of their working day
And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change
and I can’t stop finding your face in their faces, all rearranged
and angry like you never were;

And I ease us back into traffic
Dusk comes on and I wonder
Why I’m always remembering you
at civil twilight

For the most part I think about golfing and constantly calculate
all the seconds left in the minutes, and so on, etcetera
Or recite the names of provinces and Hollywood actors;
Oh, Ontario! Oh, Jennifer Jason Leigh!
This part of the day bewilders me

Streets slow down and ice over,
Dusk comes on and I struggle to stop,
To stop to stop thinking of you
at civil twilight

Hey, every other hour I pass that house,
Where you told me that you had to go
I wonder if the landlord has fixed the crack
That I stared at, instead of staring back at you;

My chance to say something seemed so brief
It wasn’t. Now I know I had plenty of time
Between the sunset and certified darkness
Dusk comes on and I follow the exhaust from memory up to the end

At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight

… what would motivate a person to try and get another person kicked out of their affiliate programs.

In looking through my stats today, I’m seeing a really high number of consecutive clicks into this site, and from there to an ad on my site; then back to the site, and to another ad; then back to the site, and to another ad.

Oddly, most of these clicks seem to be coming from one computer, all at the same location. In fact, I got more clicks from 5:30 – 6:00 Mountain Time than I generally do in an entire day. This is the sort of thing that raises red-flags with ad providers, especially when those clicks account for more than 80% of the traffic during that half-hour period.

Research seems to indicate that normal click-through rates are typically between 0.5% and 4% … what do you think is going to happen if an ad-provider all of a sudden sees click-through rates jumping from that level to 25% or more, and nearly 80% during a given time slot?

I wonder if there is a way for a content-provider to restrict certain IP addresses from accessing a particular domain.

Stopped at Christine’s Fountain while out for my ride today. It’s in a perfect place to stop and rest a bit and refill bottles at the mouth of Parley’s Canyon on Foothill.

I never met Christine Brimley, but many thanks for inspiring so many people, and many thanks to Marit Fischer for letting people know about Christine’s incredible life, which allowed me (amongst others) to help make this memorial a reality.

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Now that the Tour is over, it’s time to get off the couch and back on the bike … of course, 3 weeks off, when you’re already not fit, can be painful when you do get back on.

The Garmin didn’t record yesterday’s ride properly, but here’s today’s …

THE BLUE ANGEL

Marlene Dietrich is singing a lament
for mechanical love.
She leans against a mortarboard tree
on a plateau by the seashore.

She’s a life-sized toy,
the doll of eternity;
her hair is shaped like an abstract hat
made out of white steel.

Her face is powdered, whitewashed and
immobile like a robot.
Jutting out of her temple, by an eye,
is a little white key.

She gazes through dull blue pupils
set in the whites of her eyes.
She closes them, and the key
turns by itself.

She opens her eyes, and they’re blank
like a statue’s in a museum.
Her machine begins to move, the key turns
again, her eyes change, she sings.

—you’d think I would have thought a plan
to end the inner grind,
but not till I have found a man
to occupy my mind.

  — Allen Ginsberg (1926 – 1997), American poet

You just have to love Utah and its wonderfully idiotic (original language snipped, because I’ve got the word “porn” in several blog entries to help drive traffic) concept of holiday celebrations.

Today is July 24, which has some meaning to the Mormons, although I’ve no clue exactly what. Problem is that most people in the state act like it’s Christmas in July without the gifts.

According to Wikipedia:

Pioneer Day (also archaically called the Day of Deliverance) is an official Utah state holiday celebrated on July 24 in the U.S. state of Utah, with some celebrations in regions of surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, fireworks, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event.

In addition to being an official holiday in Utah, Pioneer Day is considered a special occasion by many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Pioneer Day, some Latter-day Saints walk portions of the Mormon Trail or reenact entering the Salt Lake Valley by handcart. Even Latter-day Saints outside of the U.S. occasionally sing Mormon folk music around July 24 in remembrance of the pioneer era.

Ah … so basically the State of Utah codified a religious holiday, in the name of “history”. Once more proof that there is little (if any) separation of church and state in Utah.

The worst parts? The DABC liquor stores are closed and they shoot off more fireworks than on the 4th of July. So aggravating! Good thing I stocked up on Stella Artois earlier this week.